Saving You Money For Life

In early March, a year and a half after hurricane Katrina made landfall in 2005, the city of New Orleans filed a $77 billion claim against the Army Corps of Engineers. The federal Tort Act indicated that March 1 was the last day claimants could file against the Corps, a required step before any recovery lawsuit.

The Army Corps of Engineers designed the levee system to protect the city. The Insurance Information Institute estimates that Louisiana’s Hurricane Katrina losses were about $25.3 billion, noting that the levee collapse flooded about 80 percent of the city with water 20 feet deep in some places. The city filed its $77 billion claim, about $170,000 for each person in the city’s pre-storm population of 455,000.

The claim was filed on March 1, the same day President Bush returned to the devastated region for the first time in six months.

The city’s attorney, Penya Moses-Fields, said the filing was made under the tort act to preserve the city’s claim. The Corps can accept, settle or reject the claim in the next six months. If it rejects the claim, the city of New Orleans is free to sue the federal government.

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